I haven’t posted this in a few months.
The BLS diffusion index for total private employment was at 57.0 in December, down from 65.7 in November.
For manufacturing, the diffusion index was at 44.7, down from 65.8 in November.
Think of this as a measure of how widespread job gains are across industries. The further from 50 (above or below), the more widespread the job losses or gains reported by the BLS. From the BLS:
Figures are the percent of industries with employment increasing plus one-half of the industries with unchanged employment, where 50 percent indicates an equal balance between industries with increasing and decreasing employment.
Overall both total private and manufacturing job growth were not widespread in December.
Both indexes generally trended down in 2019 – except for a spike up in November – indicating job growth was becoming less widespread across industries (especially manufacturing).